Idle Analytics» Video games

Saints Row IV is the most fun I've had playing a game

Reuben — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:55:43 +0000

In the first ten minutes of Saints Row IV, I climbed up a nuclear ICBM, in flight and on a course to hit the US, and disabled it, as Aerosmith's Don't Wanna Miss a Thing played and my teammates told me how much they'd miss me and appreciated my sacrifice. Naturally, I survived and became …

Virtual reality is finally coming next year

Reuben — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 08:04:00 +0000

Virtual Reality has been a joke for years. For all the derision heaped on nonexistent flying cars, jetpacks, and cures for cancer, no seemingly straightforward bit of technology has been vaporware for so long. 1992's film The Lawnmower Man enticed us with the idea of entering a fictional world, a facsimile of Star Trek's Holodeck, …

Let's Play Mass Effect - Episode 1

Reuben — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 03:09:59 +0000

Jessica and I embark on a journey to snark all over a great video game. Part1: Part 2:

Bioshock Infinite

Reuben — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:57:06 +0000

How much of life can you evoke in a medium where the point of view is confined to that of a man walking around shooting things? Game designer Ken Levine has been trying to answer this questions for many years. The first game of his I was aware of was System Shock 2, where you …

The Witcher 2 is basically fantastic

Reuben — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:40:39 +0000

Fantasy isn't my favorite genre. It's nearly always set in some vaguely medieval setting, but without Christianity (who can separate those?) and includes a ton of lore about magic, dragons, along with elves, dwarfs, and other variations on humanoids who have different British accents. The trappings take over, and not much compelling ever seems to …

Viewed either of two ways, Mass Effect 3 is a confused mess

Reuben — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 05:05:24 +0000

I have certainly been accused, in my life, of not liking science fiction very much. That's a partly fair assessment based on the fact that I don't think very much of the most famous sci-fi franchises. The cloying Star Trek mostly rings hollow to me because in my perception all its characters are merely types; …

L.A. Noire is good. Really good.

Reuben — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 08:54:12 +0000

Judging whether Rockstar's latest, LA Noire is artistically successful hinges on two things. The first is whether it fits into the genre its purports. The second is whether it does so well. The answers are yes, and hell yes. Film noir wasn't so much a genre as it was a movement, spanning the 1940s and …

Rant: How did they fuck up the Silent Hill movie so bad?

Reuben — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:03:09 +0000

My apologies to James Rolfe. Silent Hill is a good franchise, all said. The first two games are quite good, with the second being among many people's top 10 of all time (including my own. Actually, I would rank it number 2 or 3). Now, I'm not a fanboy; I really didn't expect the movie …

House of the Dead: Overkill is a triumph

Reuben — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 07:57:52 +0000

It's interesting to be around for the birth of a new artistic medium. What is ugly nonsense to those older folks who did not grow up with it is wondrous and relevant to those who did. Film developed in much the same way. First monopolized by its inventor, Edison made the first films as uninspired …

Wii is great, but PS3 is still going to win

Reuben — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:37:09 +0000

It took me 6 phone calls, but I did get a Wii on December 26th, at a Circuit City near my house. By the time I got there, almost all of their units had gone. According to the employee, as soon as someone finds out they have the Wiis, people call their friends and the …